The FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital Auxiliary has taken a special interest in projects that encourage children to eat healthy foods and participate in outdoor exercise.

In fact, former auxiliary chairwoman Kathy Byron has been so involved in these projects, called FirstSchool Gardens, that she recently received an H. Glenn Williams Power of One Award from Communities In Schools North Carolina (CISNC).

The award was presented during the 2008 NCCIS Education Ball in Raleigh on June 7.

Since the fall of 2006, the auxiliary has contributed $32,000 to FirstSchool Garden or related projects.

An initial disbursement of $5,000 in fall 2006/spring 2007 funded a FirstSchool Garden (the first one) and fitness trail at Aberdeen Elementary School. Earlier this year, a $10,000 disbursement funded gardens at Academy Heights and Pine-hurst Elementary schools, while another $5,000 funded a summer camp for students from both Aberdeen Elementary and Primary schools.

The seven-week camp will "provide a safe place for children to be over the summer," according to Byron.

A $12,000 disbursement scheduled for this fall will fund FirstSchool Garden projects at Vass-Lakeview Elementary School and Pinecrest High, where the garden will become a part of the high school's Life Skills program for exceptional education students.

By Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year, auxiliary disbursements will have totaled in excess of $114,000. Other funded Auxiliary projects are listed as follows:

- $25,000 to renovate the Radiation Oncology waiting areas at Moore Regional Hospital. A lighted wall transparency depicting a stream in springtime was designed to improve the "view" in the windowless waiting areas.

In addition, chairs in both waiting rooms were recovered and the wallpaper was replaced -- both with ecologically friendly materials.

- $10,000 for construction of a traditional cottage-garden dovecote that will serve as a major focal point, as well as a functional tool shed, for the FirstVillage Hospitality House at Moore Regional Hospital.

- $10,000 to fund the first Summit to Reverse Childhood Obesity Trends in the Sandhills. Planned for October 2008, the program will allow various regional organizations to come together to develop a regionwide childhood obesity prevention and intervention plan.

It is hoped that the summit will become an annual event.

n $10,000 to commission outdoor art for the Hospitality House Healing Garden.

- $5,280 to sponsor 22 subscriptions for FirstHealth Response, a program that helps aging individuals live independently.

Auxiliary support helped eliminate a waiting list last year when interest in the program surged.

- $5,000 to FirstHealth's FirstFit initiative, which promotes healthy lifestyles among FirstHealth employees.

One hundred employees are piloting the use of Auxiliary-funded electronic pedometers that allow them to review their physical activity patterns in an effort to become more active.

- $5,000 to support the June 14 FirstHealth "His Health" event that was highlighted by health screenings and seminars for men.

- $5,000 to fund a SafeKids seminar focusing on injury prevention for the parents of children due to be delivered at Moore Regional Hospital.

In addition to the seminar, the grant will also supplement the cost of car seats available at a reduced rate to seminar participants.

- $5,000 to support the FirstHealth Home Care Patient Fund that was established by the Auxiliary to help patients who are discharged from the hospital to FirstHealth Home Care but are unable to provide for their own basic needs.

- $3,475 to buy a linear transducer for the ultrasound unit in the Moore Regional Emergency Department.

The vascular access device, obtained at the request of the department's physicians, assists in the insertion of central lines.

- $3,390 to replace the treatment recliners in the Inpatient Dialysis Unit.

n $2,500 to the Kids in Crisis fund that serves low-income children in Moore County public schools who have a critical need for health care that is not covered by insurance. The Auxiliary contribution pays for medications.

- $2,500 to the Safe Little Angels program that provides an appropriate car seat to infants discharged from Moore Regional's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) when the restraint provided by the family is not adequate or when a car seat is unavailable through another resource.

- $2,234 to allow two NICU nurse practitioners to attend a STABLE instructor course on the post-resuscitation care of newborns.

- $2,000 to the Toymakers, FirstHealth volunteers who hand-make stuffed animals and walker bags for distribution to Moore Regional patients.

- $1,738 to buy two additional electric breast pumps for the rental program operated by the breastfeeding consultant at Moore Regional.

The auxiliary also underwrites the rental cost for low-income parents, especially those with children in the NICU.

- $1,500 to the Emergency Department Clothing Closet, which supplies clothing items to women who must surrender their clothes for evidence when they come to the hospital to be treated for sexual assault.

The auxiliary has assumed financial responsibility for stocking the closet and has helped expand the service to accommodate other patients who need replacement clothing.

- $200 for a special Imaging Department promotion to offer free manicures to women following evening mammogram appointments during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in March.